Woohoo a New Post
By admin | September 13, 2007
Firstly I want to apologise. I have left this blog to just go stagnant for a while, I can see people have found it through google and the like so I hope these beginners tips have helped someone.
I have been doing a lot on my main site at the moment hence this one being left out. Take a look at neilmcdonaldphotography.com to see what I have been up to. I do have more plans to update this site so if you have any recommendations just let me know and i’m on it.
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Digital Photography - Jargon Buster
By admin | June 11, 2007
Digital Photography has its fair share of jargon so here I will give you a glossary of some of the most common terms.
Aperture - A variable opening in the lens that controls the amount of light let into the camera
Aperture priority - An exposure function where the user controls the aperture and therefore the depth of field and the camera alters the metering and shutter speed accordingly
Anti-aliasing - Smoothing the jagged edges (aliasing) of selection or paint tools in digital imaging software.
Artefact - A defect or flaw in a digital image.
Bit - A binary digit. A digital quantity representing either 1 or 0.
Bitmap - An image made up of dots or pixels. All cameras produce these.
Buffer - This is the memory that can store images before they are written to the memory card. This means a burst of photos can be taken in a short space of time.
Burst mode (Continuous Shooting) - A feature that allows many shots to be taken in quick succession.
Camera Shake - Blurring in an image caused by movement during an exposure.
CCD - (Charge-Coupled Device) Converts light into electrical current. This is the image sensor which is the digital equivalent of film.
Cloning - A feature in image editing software that allows one part of the image to be duplicated over another. This allows blemishes or artefacts to be seamlessly removed.
CMOS - Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor. This is an alternative image sensor to the CCD.
CMY, CMYK - (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow) Colour printing model. CMYK adds black (Key) and is used for most professional printing applications.
CompactFlash - Type of digital camera removable storage media.
Depth of Field - The area in front and behind the focus point that is sharp. This is controlled by the aperture.
Digital Zoom - A feature that enlarges the central part of the image to create the effect of a telephoto lens. It is in fact just cropping the image.
DPI - (Dots per Inch). Is a measurement of the resolution of a printer or monitor.
Electronic Viewfinder - A tiny LCD screen mounted inside a viewfinder to replace an optical system.
Exposure - The amount of light falling on a CCD or image sensor. It is controlled by a combination of shutter speed and aperture.
EXIF - (Exchangeable Image Format) enables information such as the time and date of the photograph be stored alongside the exposure.
f-Number / f-stop - The f-number describes the diameter of the aperture as a fraction of the focal length of the lens. The smaller the f/number the larger the aperture and thus the shallower the depth of field.
Focal Length - The measurement that determine the magnification and field of view of a lens. Expressed in mm.
Infinity -The farthest possible distance a lens can focus on.
Interpolation - Increasing the number of pixels in an image or filling in missing colour information by sampling neighbouring pixels. This cannot add information or detail to the image.
ISO - (International Standard Organisation) this used to refer to the light sensitivity of film. So you can guess in digital terms it relates to the sensitivity of the sensor. The darker a scene then a higher ISO will be needed.
JPEG - A file format that is very efficient at storing digital photographs. It allows a large amount of information to be compressed to take up less memory. Virtually all cameras use this format.
Macro - Used to describe photographs that are very close-up but refers to a lens that can focus at close distances, usually less than 30cm.
Manual - The function where the user enters all the variables that make up the exposure, the shutter speed and exposure settings must be entered manually.
Memory Card - A form of removable storage, which stores all the information for each photograph. They come in a variety of formats (SD card, Smart Media, CompactFlash, Sony Memory Stick)
Megapixel - A measurement of camera resolution. One million pixels is a megapixel.
Noise - In digital cameras noise often occurs in low light images or where high ISO values have been used. It shows in the form of pixels that have random colours on dark areas of the image.
Pixel - (PICture ELement.) The smallest element of a picture. All digital photos are made of small squares, these are the pixels.
PPI - (Pixels/Points Per Inch.) A measurement of resolution in scanners, images and printers.
Resolution - Measurement of the amount of information in an image in the form of pixels. Often expressed as two figures representing the image width and height, such as 2272 X 1704 pixels or 4 megapixels.
RGB - (Red, Green, Blue.) Digital Cameras use a mix of R, G and B to make up the colours of an image.
Shutter Speed - The time in which the image sensor or CCD is exposed during the exposure.
Shutter Lag - The delay between the pressing of the shutter button and the picture being taken.
Telephoto - A lens that magnifies the subject making it seem closer.
TIFF - File format for high quality digital images
White Balance - Most digital cameras adjust colour balance to compensate to the light temperature or tints. This is called ‘white balance’ and means you can take photos in different types of light i.e. tungsten, fluorescent and sunlight without any colour casts.
Phew that was a long post. If you have any others you want to contribute please leave a comment and share.
Topics: Tips for Beginners, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Naturally Gifted - 5 Ways to Improve Your Landscape Photography
By admin | June 9, 2007
Lines and Patterns
Landscapes
Perspective
When shooting a landscape
Small Apertures
Using a small aperture will increase the depth of field in the image ensuring the maximum amount of the image is in focus. Although the use of a shallow depth of field can be used to great creative effect, you will usually want to capture everything in sharp focus and a small aperture is the best way to do this. This brings me onto my next point.
Use a Tripod
I cannot stress this enough,although they may be cumbersome and a pain to carry it is a valuable tool. Using a small aperture to get the maximum amount of detail into the image will mean your shutter speed will be longer and any movement where your holding the camera will blur the photo. You can get away with handholding the camera when the scene is bright but for sunsets and night shots a tripod is a must.
Symmetry
Symmetry can make a crucial difference to the composition and appearance of your photographs.By ensuring objects are symmetrical in the frame you will give the photo a sense of balance. For example a rocky cliff on one side of the image and some trees on the other will appear balanced. However a deliberate lack of balance by placing elements off centre can create striking compositions
Topics: Landscape, Composition | 2 Comments »
Landscape Photography - The Great Outdoors
By admin | June 8, 2007
When we think of landscape photography, we generally think of rolling hills, Snowy mountain peaks and gushing waterfalls. In reality landscape photography is one of the broadest and most varied categories of photography.
The natural world offers a infinitely diverse range of shooting opportunities that can change in matters of hours and minutes. The weather, time of year and hour of the day can alter the resulting image. A landscape doesn’t even have to look pleasant to be visually stimulating a good photographer can make the blandest subject interesting.
The key to successful landscape photography is to try and recreate in a photograph what drew your own eye to the scene in the first place is it colour, shape, texture or light.
We have all had disappointments when taking a landscape photo and the resulting shot doesn’t quite live up to how we saw it ourselves. This tends to happen a lot when you don’t give yourself time to think about composition, framing and getting the correct exposure i.e. – shooting in Auto Mode.
One of the most important aspects of landscape photography is preparation. You need to be at the location at the right time to capture the best light and setup the correct exposure. Landscapes are generally static by nature so this means you have plenty of time to get things right
What of location? What landscapes can you photograph? You shouldn’t have to travel to far from your door to find a suitable subject. As I mentioned any subject can make a good landscape image if you have a good imagination and careful planning. Over the next few posts I will give you some tips to spark some life into your landscape photos.
Topics: Landscape, Tips for Beginners | No Comments »
Close Up and Macro Photography
By admin | June 7, 2007
Part of the beauty and lure of close-ups or macro as it is referred to is that it opens up hundreds of photographic opportunities right in front you. With a little buit of creativity and a photographic eye even the most everyday or mundane objects can create excellent subjects and wonderfuls prints.When you look closely you will notice an intricate world of details unseen or simploy taken for granted.
Another great thing about digital cameras is even the most basic usually offer some form of macro mode soyou can begin straight away, you went need any additional lenses to begin with.
5 Tips for Getting Started
Tip 1: It is vital you choose your focal point in theimage and compose therest around this.In macro mode the Depth of Field is often very shallow because of the focal distance and apertures involved, because only a small part of the photo will be ultra sharp make you’re selection wisely
Tip 2: Will busy scenes can give the viewer lots to excite them it is often the simplest compositions that are the most pleasing to the eye.Rather than incorporating lots into one photo try using compositional elemnts such as lines, colour and shape to increase impact.
Tip 3: Pay attention to the background of the photo. Even though it will be out of focus the background will have a large effect ion the main subject of the image and it is good practice to try to keep distractions to a minimum.
Tip 4: Try not to fall into the trap of thinking macro is for shooting small subjects. Using macro to capture a face can bring around whole newperspectives and creating stunning photographs.
Tip 5: Try to add variety to your macro shots by capturing action in you macro shots. Using a fast shutter speed will freeze the movments of a insects wings beating and can create dramatic photographs.
Topics: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Rule Of Thirds
By admin | June 6, 2007
The way that you organize a picture is important because when the viewer look at the photo it is these sections that make the first impression.
Dissecting the Frame
As a rule or maybe a guideline should I say a frame should be divided into thirds? Known as the “Rule of Thirds” you imagine the frame separated into three areas horizontally and vertically and place the focus of the image at the points where any of the four lines intersect. Placement of the horizon line for example is generally most pleasing if placed a third or two thirds down the frame. Obviously though as I say this is a guideline you can bend these rules any way you wish.
Although this is simple stuff and anyone who has read a little about photography will probably know this, it is an easy guideline to follow in composing your frame and getting results that are pleasing to the eye.
Another way to implement the Four Thirds rule can be when taking a portrait shot to line the eyes of the subject a third of the way down the frame and this will immediately draw attention to the eyes of the subject which is a good thing. One last thing, once you have got the hang of the Rule of Thirds you will very quickly want to break it, this is fine. As I said earlier these ‘rules’ are best used as guidelines and if you can create a better image by bending or ignoring rules then go for it.
Topics: Tips for Beginners, Composition | No Comments »
3 Tips for a Better Composition
By admin | June 5, 2007
Although there is no mathematical equation for what makes a good picture, there are some very simple rules or guidelines that if you follow can make the world of difference to the resulting picture. When you read through the tips you can see how simple they are and just how easy they are to implement.
Tip 1: Look at the Surroundings
When you look at the scene you are going to take a picture of, you can relate to the distance of objects behind and in front of the subject. When you take a picture it’s much harder to perceive these distances because we see in three dimensions and the picture is in two dimensions.
You can find examples of this when you look at snaps of a person in front of a tree and the tree seems to be growing out of their head. It can help when framing and taking the picture to pay just as much attention to the surroundings through the viewfinder or LCD of the camera as the subject.
Tip 2: Fill the Frame
When you look through the viewfinder you’re mind will exaggerate the subject you have chosen and you tend not to notice how small it is in the frame and this is quite a common thing to do.
It’s quite simple but an easy trap to fall into often a snapshot will not live up to the potential you saw in it because you haven’t filled the frame with the subject. Try to consider before you press the shutter whether the shot would look better zoomed in a little or take a few steps forward.
Tip 3: Shift the Camera to the Side
I think one of the most common mistakes is that you will put your subject smack bang in the middle of the frame. It is extraordinary the difference made by moving the subject to the left or right of the frame.
We shall cover more on this in a future post about the Rule of Thirds so be sure to take a look at that.
Topics: Tips for Beginners, Composition | 1 Comment »
PhotoWalkthrough.com - Photography Post Processing
By admin | June 4, 2007
PhotoWalkthrough.com presents video tutorials showing the post processing of a photograph using Adobe Photoshop and other programs. Along the way you will learn about the tools and techniques used and gain insight into the creative decisions that directed the artist’s hand.
I myself have used the video tutorials created by John Arnold the creator and contributor to the site and cannot recommend them highly enough.
Not only can you watch these tutorials on your computer and learn all you need to know about processing and manipulating your images in photoshop, you can even get the videos on your iPod and watch them later.
The real beauty of these tutorials is that the whole process from the starting image to the final print is explained and the steps shown with excellent narration.
Click PhotoWalkthrough.com or the picture above and take a look now.
Topics: Post-Processing, Tips for Beginners | No Comments »
Shutter Speed and Shutter Priority
By admin | June 4, 2007
The ability to control the duration of the exposure of a photograph is another creative tool to add to the photographer’s arsenal. On many creative compacts
Most modern cameras have shutters speeds between 1/1000th of a second to a few minutes. This time is the duration in which your camera’s sensor will be exposed to collect the information that makes up the final picture.
If the speed the shutter opens is say 1/125th of a second which is a relatively short exposure the camera will make sure that enough light is let in to get the correct exposure, if the exposure is 2 second the camera will make sure that too much light doesn’t get in to over expose the photo. The way in which it does this is to alter the aperture so the hole in the lens only let the right amount of light in to get the correct exposure. Obviously the quicker the shutter speed the larger the hole needs to be because the light has only a short amount of time to create the correct levels of light in the picture. The long the shutter speed the smaller the hole or aperture has to be.
The creative controls that shutter speed allows can create huge differences in the way a picture looks. A fast shutter speed of 1/500th of a second can freeze motion from say a racing car or a birds flapping wings where as a long shutter speed of a ½ of a second can create blurring or motion trails in an image. Both are powerful tools for conveying action in a scene or producing creative effects. However with a long exposure it is vital to keep the camera static as the shaking of hands will blur the entire image.
Table of contents for Priority Modes
- Exposure and Priority Modes
- Camera Settings - Automatic Mode
- Understanding Exposure
- Apertures and Aperture Priority
- Shutter Speed and Shutter Priority
Topics: Tips for Beginners, Composition | No Comments »
Apertures and Aperture Priority
By admin | June 2, 2007
I was going to start by talking about the different shooting modes that you get on nearly all digital cameras nowadays. These shooting modes usually consist of portrait mode, Landscape, Night, Sports, and Sunset mode etc. You can see in the picture the little symbols that indicate these.
I decided not to start talking about these because they really just alter the aperture, and shutter speed and sometimes the metering which is a whole separate topic. I have therefore decided to start talking about the aperture, or more precisely the mode on most creative compacts or SLR’s called Aperture Priority abbreviated to Av.
First of all we will start with what an aperture is. In simple terms the aperture is the size of the opening inside a lens. This hole inside the lens is variable and affects the exposure and the overall look of the resulting photograph.
The smaller the hole or aperture the less light can get into cameras sensor, if the aperture is large then more, light can get into the cameras sensor. This aperture setting is usually expressed as an f-number and in a confusing quirk the larger the f-number the smaller the aperture or hole. Thus when you say you are shooting as f/16 you are using a small aperture and an f/1.4 you are using a large aperture or hole.
The reason they are called f-numbers (if you really want to know) is simple. The f-number describes the diameter of the aperture as a fraction of the focal length of the lens. It’s probably best to just gloss over this as you do not need to know it to make use of aperture priority mode. What’s really important is the size of the aperture and why you would want to change its size.
There are 3 main reasons why you would change the aperture: to vary the amount of light into the camera i.e. in very bright sunlight you would use a smaller aperture, because you want to use a long shutter speed (we will look at shutter speeds in the next part of the series) and to alter the parts or amount of the image in focus which is referred to as the Depth of Field.
A lens can only focus on a single point or distance. If the camera is focused on something 1 metre away then anything in the frame in front or behind or being this point 1 metre away may be slightly out of focus (soft or fuzzy). Depth of field is a measure of each side of the focus point is acceptably sharp. I will write further about depth of field at a later date. What I want to explain is how aperture affects the Depth of field.
All that you really need to know is the smaller the f-number (wider the aperture) the smaller the depth of field. So at f/1.4 only a very small amount of the image will be sharp either side. Of course that means at a small aperture or a large f-number the opposite happens. At f/16 for instance a large portion of the image before and behind the focus point will be sharp.
The way that aperture priority works on your camera is that it allows you to select the f-number you want and it programs everything around this so you can think about how the aperture will affect the resulting photo.
That is as far as I want to go with this at the moment because throwing to much information at you at this point may make things more complicated. If you take a look at the next post in the series we will learn more about shutter speeds and how apertures and shutter speed work together.
Table of contents for Priority Modes
- Exposure and Priority Modes
- Camera Settings - Automatic Mode
- Understanding Exposure
- Apertures and Aperture Priority
- Shutter Speed and Shutter Priority
Topics: Tips for Beginners, Composition | 1 Comment »